In Your Eyes
by shinobi ren
Summary: A Shikamaru-centric fic, pairings ShikaTemari and ShikaIno so far. Shikamaru's life is in disarray, can someone come along and fix it? First chapter formatting fixed.
1. Prologue

~In Your Eyes~  
  
The Prolouge  
  
A/N: Hello! First fic here, and a Shikamaru one at that. I luff him so much. This chaper is a bit OOC, and keep in mind that this is semi-AU, it's in the future. I don't know if I'll continue this for sure, it may just be a one-shot, depending on the response to it. Still, I have the next chapter planned out ^-^.  
  
Pairings: ShikaTemari, ShikaIno. Pairings will change  
  
Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, the plot would be SO much better than this.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Opening his eyes to form a sleepy glare, Shikamaru sighed, was it really morning already? Vaugely, he noticed he wasn't in his room, this room had much more decoration than his plain beige apartment. Ah, that's right, he was at Ino's. Sure enough, looking down, he sawthe blond snuggled safely into his arms. So that's why he was so warm. Shifting slightly, he noticed that sometime during the night his shirt had come off. Oh well, he mentally shrugged, it's not as if he was lacking heat. When he tried to remember why he was, in fact, in Ino's bed, his sleepy mind failed to answer. Was it just another random sleepover? Sometimes he just stayed at Ino's for no other reason than to enjoy her company; they hadn't been seeing eachother much recently, not usually getting assigned missions together anymore, and Shikamaru had his reationship with Temari. Oh, that's right. Temari. The events of the previous day flooded back to him and he bit back a groan. Today was going to be a very long day. Sure, he only had one misson to complete (and he being a jounin, the B-rank task wouldn't even take the three hours it would take him to sucessfully get out of bed), but then he had the momentous task of trying to go back to his apartment. Therein was the problem. Having crashed at Ino's house last night, he had so far avoided any contact with Temari at their house. Knowing he had to go back, though, put quite a damper on the day. Normally he could have gotten in a few hours of cloud watching after work, but he knew that was now impossible.  
  
Sure, for a while the two geniuses seemed to be the perfect couple. Both of them understood each other perfectly, but soon the relationship disintegrated. They had met years before, at the first chuunin exam. At the time, neither thought much on one another, other than that the other was a very worthy apponent. A two years or so after, they had met again in the Jounin exams. Casually, they had met a few times, Temari mentioning in passiong that she was thinking of moving to the leaf. Six months later, she had, and they had started dating. To Temari, Shikamaru was someone to spend the time between sleeping and working with, just a distraction for the most part. This situation suited Shikamaru fine; after a time of being enemies, who expected them to really fall in love? So things were all right for a time, nothing really emotional, but there was some form of connection. The sex? It was great and all, but nothing personal; Shikamaru almost always left right after. They did lust after one another to an extent, but it was really to bothersome for both of them to really put any effort into it. But still, it wasn't all convenience, they both cared for one another, just not as much as most people would expect. In the mornings, she would cook him breakfast, before he went out on missions, he would kiss her and say 'be home soon,' they'd wish each other a good day. In some ways, they were closer to a married couple, one that had lost it's newly-wed sparkle but that still held affection.   
  
Two months into things, Shikamaru suggested she move in with him. Things were a lot less troublesome that way, he said. Now, in retrospect, that's when the whole thing started to go bad. Temari started to care much more, she saw herself as in love with him and she became more dedicated to the relationship. When Shikamaru's attitude remained the same, the relationship hit the rocks. When Temari tried to talk to him, he just ignored her, not willing to put the effort into apease her. She'd try to make herself look nice, to show that she cared, but it had no effect on him. It wasn't that he no longer cared, or even that he wanted out of the relationship, it was just that he wasn't going to try to change himself for her. He was lazy, a genius who didn't even have enough incentive to move unless his life depended on it. He knew this, he accepted this; Temari did not. She began to try to make him a different person, the person she wanted him to be. This, of course, led to arguements. She'd tell him to go to Hokage to get more missions, that he didn't become a better ninja by sitting on his ass. He'd tell her she was becoming a nagging old lady that didn't know when to mind her own business. This got her riled up like nothing else, she didn't move to the hidden-leaf to be called such degrading things. The fights gradually became worse and worse (when Shikamaru actually roused into conciousness enough to verbally attack her back) until he just walked out, saying he was going to Ino's. He left Temari crying on the sofa, her head in her hands, trying to decide if she shouldn't just go back to her brothers in the sand.  
  
That had only been last night. When he showed up at his teammate's doorstep and requested her couch Ino just shrugged vaguely, when he had started to explain she stared at him with sleepy eyes and tried to whap him in the head, but missed. Finally allowing him to pass, Ino watched blearily as he made his way to her couch; she was tired, but not all that suprised. When he had finally reached the sofa, mumbling all the way, she had let out a sharp sound of annoyance and promptly dragged him to her bed, muttering something like 'If you woke me up, you sure as hell are going to keep me warm' and snuggling into him like he was a personal Ino-teddybear. Not that he minded, as much as he hated to admit it, he would have missed sleeping next to someone. Remembering that this was Ino and not Temari, he realized that he really didn't feel all that different. So instead of complaining half-heartedly that she was smothering him when she cuddled him closer and sighed contentedly, he wrapped his arms lazily around Ino's waist and gone to sleep.   
  
So there he was, embracing the bossiest girl he knew in the bed she had thrown him in, smelling her peach-scented hair with each breath, and wondering if the mission was all that improtant or if he could just stay here. It was calm, and Ino was cute when she slept, was there really anything worth rousing himself for? It was nice to have someone to wake up to once in a while, Temari usually woke early in the morning and he woke up hugging a pillow and somewhat wishing it was her. So he guessed it wouldn't hurt to stay here a bit longer and enjoy Ino's soft, warm form next to his; he would go and reconcile with Temari later (if she would even have him back, that is), but now was time for comfortable rest. He hugged the sleeping woman closer and closed his eyes again.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
See the little button there? Reviews help the lazy author to get some motivation ^-^.  
  
Next Chapter: Fast-forward to the end of the day, Shikamaru is going home to Temari, but something stops him. What is it? And dies she take him back? Fell free to vote! 


	2. Chapter 1

~In Your Eyes~  
  
Chapter One  
  
A/N: Wow. Is it just me or is Shika very OOC here? Gah, I need to get into his head better! I know I did Ino relatively well, but I still need to work on it more… And, just for kicks, I'll tell you something: the last two paragraphs originally started out as the first two! But then I realized that I didn't want him to leave until the next chapter AND I had NO IDEA what the note would actually say ^^. Heh, I'm a lazy authoress. Review responses at the end.  
  
Pairings: ShikaTemari, ShikaIno. Pairings will change... Possibly yaoi, most likely het (ShikaIno).  
  
Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, Shikamaru would be a male stripper who I could hire every day. Or maybe I should say 'every night.' *snicker* I don't own Naruto, so don't sue me.  
  
  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Shikamaru looked curiously at the package Ino had just handed him after she jumped through the open window he was currently standing beside. "These are the documents Hokage wanted?" He asked, staring at her blankly.  
  
  
  
  
  
"No," she said sarcastically, putting a hand on her hip and looking slightly annoyed, "They are little tiny bunny rabbits for Chouji to eat. Of course these are the documents! If they weren't, would I have breached 20 some-odd security devices just to get them?!"  
  
  
  
  
  
He shrugged lightly, he wasn't going to even start with Ino- she was already peeved at him from this morning. Truly, he was still asleep in Ino's bed- with the blonde still snuggled safely into his arms to boot- and thusly couldn't really be blamed for his blatant ignorance of the situation. His mind drifted as they walked back to Konoha, thoughts straying to the events of the day. Unfortunately, he was unable to sleep as long as he would have liked in the morning, having been woken up (again) by Ino's screams of 'We're late! We're late! We are so unbelievably late!' and being jostled by her jumping out of his arms. He had missed the warmth. Smirking lazily and getting dressed, he had gone to make breakfast for them both. Of course, this meant that he raided her cabinets and threw her an energy bar as he unwrapped one of his own. Not the most healthy breakfast in the world, but it would do. Usually he thought it much too annoying to even put the effort into getting up to help someone other than himself, but this time, curiously enough, he hadn't minded. Ino had pecked him on the cheek as a way of thanks and they had rushed out the door to their meeting with the Hokage. He still insisted that the feel of her soft lips on his cheek really wasn't the best part of the day. The mission had been simple enough, just a simple 'reclaiming' of information. There had been a tip that Itachi (he was still S-ranked, so they had better watch out) was getting close to the Leaf, but the reports were all in the village to the north of them who would not hand them over. Ino and he had snuck in (well, mostly Ino- he was on guard duty) and simply snatched the necessary documents. Easy and best of all not very time consuming.  
  
  
  
  
  
"Oi, Shika! Wake up!" His head snapped up as Ino waved her small hand in front of his eyes, coming face to face with a very sweetly smiling girl. This was not a good sign. "I'll forgive you for not waking me up if you take me out for sushi!" She said in a sugar-coated, melodious tone as she blinked demurely.   
  
  
  
  
  
Shikamaru nodded passively, this was almost a tradition already. They'd come home from a mission, and Ino would make him take her out for sushi. Well, not make him per se- he really enjoyed his time with her, when it was available. So, with all of the years behind it, what was the use in complaining that he was tired? It was not as if he stood a chance of dissuading the bossiest kunoichi in all of Konoha from dragging him half way across town. He sighed, offered his arm to Ino as a gentleman should (one of the conditioned responses she had drilled into his little genius brain about four years ago), and proceeded to walk with her toward their favorite sushi joint.   
  
  
  
  
  
A while later, Shikamaru gazed at the trees that lined the little lane he was currently walking down on his way back from dinner. He had been down this way many a time- it was, after all, the way to his apartment. Wondering vaguely if Temari would actually be home, he continued on his way- his lazy stride taking him step by step closer to the very place he least wanted to be. After he had walked Ino to her door, and kissed her goodnight (it was innocent, he swore it) she had insisted that he go right back to his house, that there would be no more avoiding Temari f she had any say in the matter. Which she did, of course, as she had taken total control of his life within the first few months of knowing him. He would have preferred not to, but Ino said that if he didn't, he could never crash at her house again- not to mention that she'd beat him up. Ino, for some reason, actually liked Temari. So, given the choices, he chose to face Temari over the prospect of being homeless the next time he walked out (or the next time he was thrown out, which ever came first). Yes, Temari was much less of a risk to his daily life than that blonde hellion.  
  
  
  
  
  
And that was how he found himself here, staring up at the home he shared with his girlfriend, and hoping against hope that he would suddenly have an excuse not to be there. He hated to apologize to Temari, it just wasn't something he did often- he knew she'd be surprised at least. She always made a big deal over things that really didn't matter, over things that were trivial. But then again, he did care for her very much, and some part of him, some little section of his brain, wanted to go in there and beg for forgiveness. Not that he would do such an illogical thing, but the urge was there. Steeling his resolve, he walked up the steps to number 301, unlocked the door, and stepped inside warily. Okay, no pottery was being thrown at him- that was a good sign. Looking around, he immediately noticed that the house was devoid of all life. The kitchen where Temari would normally be making dinner was vacant, as was the bedroom they shared. He made his way over to the living room of their small home, pondering this unexpected turn of events. Usually she would be home by now, back from her daily diplomatic missions since about 3 o'clock, and cooking some form of their evening meal. Perhaps she had guessed that he'd gone for dinner with Ino- she did, after all, know that was a tradition- and had gone out like she did when he wasn't around. He suddenly noticed that he had, indeed, completely memorized her schedule for any given day. He determined that he had way too much awake-time on his hands, and starting immediately he would have to sleep at least two more hours a day. That resolved, he then spotted a small scrap of paper on the coffee table. How strange. If anything, Temari was a clean freak at home; it made no sense that she would leave anything just lying around. Normally, it would have been sprayed with water, wiped, sanitized, and eventually thrown away making the house immaculate once more. Picking it up, he scanned what appeared to be a note written in his off-again/on-again girlfriend's hand writing. 'This is not good,' he thought and smacked his forehead with a free hand.  
  
  
  
"Ah, shit."  
  
  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
  
  
Review Responses:  
  
Key: Well, it'll be ShikaTema for a while, but I think the final pairing will be ShikaIno. Heh, sorry! Can you think of anyone else you want paired with Temari? I can make it happen! XD  
  
Miya-Chan: There you go! I made it into an arc! He's going after her, back to the Sand! Ooh.. what will happen? Who will they meet? Will I have enough imagination to finish the arc? We'll find out!  
  
EfrainMan: I know *sweatdrop* I'm trying to figure out how she's still, er, alive… Maybe she told Kazekage that she was going on a diplomatic mission? Eh? O.o I really don't know how she isn't dead…  
  
Alriadne: Yeah! Another reader! I think that I am going to make it ShikaIno in the end, but now it's a ShikaTema arc! I actually have 2 more chapters completely summarized already… Wow, I have motivation! Thank you for the fairy! It helped a lot…  
  
Shika/Temari SHika/INO: Thank you! ^^  
  
Mesa: I don't think she will, my muse-Temari seems pretty pissed -_- It will most likely be   
  
ShikaIno in the end. 


End file.
